Abstract:
An experimental and theoretical study was made of the operating features of a high-pressure tunable CO2 laser. Excitation of a CO2:N2=1:1 gas mixture at 4 atm pressure by an externally maintained discharge, initiated by an electron beam, provided continuous tuning of the emission frequency in the P and R branches of the 0001–1000 and 0001–0200 bands of the CO2 molecule. An overall tuning range of 102 cm–1 was achieved with output energies up to 5.8 J and an efficiency of 2.2%.